Pandora's Box
by ShortyByNature
Summary: When Jack opens the legendary Pandora's Box it releases destruction that not only engulfs him, but the entire world. And now it's up to him, a woman from his past, Elizabeth and Will to set things right.
1. The Beginning

Disclaimer: Okay, kids, let's think about this. I'm 19! If you've seen the movie, then you know that I obviously did not write that amazing script.   
  
A/N: Couple things. First of all, the name used in this story "Alexa" is not some name I happen to be fond of. I researched and everything. If you are interested in the meaning, it means, "Defender of men." When you read a little, you will understand why that is so important. Secondly, updates, although coming, will probably be somewhat slow, as I am trying to make this story as plausible as possible, and I am researching everything. Thirdly, although this has a Jack/OC romance, it is primarily an adventure, so please don't get upset that the romance doesn't happen all at once. Fourthly, I don't think this has been done before. But if it has, I'm sorry. I didn't know!  
  
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"Security is an illusion. Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all."  
  
~Helen Keller  
  
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It was chilly that evening. The ocean air whipped across his face as his chocolate eyes searched the sea for the long sought after patch of land.   
  
It wouldn't be long now.  
  
"That's it?"  
  
The familiar voice behind him was dripping with disbelief.  
  
Captain Jack Sparrow turned and addressed the speaker. "My father always used to say: 'There are always defenses. Concern yourself only with the ones that cannot be seen.'"  
  
Will Turner, son of Bootstrap Bill Turner, husband to Elizabeth Swan, eyed the swiftly approaching island warily, something suspiciously like fear tugging at his heart.   
  
Which was rather odd, considering the situations he'd been in before. After all, he'd fought the undead and attempted to save his best friend from a hanging (which, really, hadn't turned out at all as he might have planned) and yet at the thought of his next task, his stomach clenched together apprehensively.  
  
Not that he would tell Jack, of course. Although the pair had been friends for a long time, there was no getting around the fact that Captain Sparrow just didn't understand the concept of fear, especially that which affected someone other than himself. He seemed to firmly believe that being Captain Jack Sparrow granted him pardon from the general rules of life endangerment.  
  
And, anyway, it wasn't like Will had been tied and gagged, forced into what most would consider a ridiculous and potentially dangerous errand. No, when Jack had showed up on the Turner's doorstep a month before, both men knew that Will was under no obligation to accompany his old friend.  
  
Elizabeth had been more than vocal about her opinion. "You'll get yourself killed," she'd snapped bluntly as they'd gone to bed that night, sending Jack to a guestroom to sleep while they talked it over. They were to give their answer first thing in the morning.  
  
Will had said nothing, but gathered his wife near and pressed his lips against her neck.  
  
"Pandora's Box…" she continued, seemingly unnoticing of her husband's affections. "Frankly, I don't think he's being entirely truthful with you, Will. With us. I mean, haven't you heard the myth?"  
  
Will smiled against her shoulder. He could already feel her resolve crumbling.  
  
"Yes, of course."  
  
"And now Jack shows up, insisting that the myth is based on facts, and that's supposed to make me feel better? I don't know what kind of treasure he expects to find, but it could have all sorts of curses placed around the damn thing to keep out pilferers like yourselves."  
  
"He says that there aren't any, and I believe him."  
  
Elizabeth lay silently, thereafter, for so long that Will began to believe she'd gone on to sleep, deciding to tell Jack, in the morning, that her husband was not about to chance after some bloody box. A few moments later, however, she spoke again. "You should go," she said softly.  
  
He kissed her again.   
  
"As long as I'm with you," she continued.  
  
He paused, thinking of the myth of Pandora's Box. The legend was that back when the gods existed they made a perfect woman with the most positive qualities they could bestow. The same gods, however, entrusted to her a box, making her swear to never open it. But being unable to control her curiosity, she did so anyway, and out of the box flew plagues, sorrows and mischief.   
  
Jack had been evasive-had said that it was somehow based on reality, but had not given specifics. But if there was a real curse (Will inwardly shuddered, thinking of the Aztec gold) he did not want his wife to be any part of it.  
  
"I don't know if that's such a good idea," he replied.  
  
"You don't have to," she responded, her voice calm, but firm, "because whether you like it or not I'm going along."  
  
He sighed and tried another route. "Do you really want to spend a month aboard a ship with CAPTAIN Jack Sparrow?"  
  
"Do YOU really want to spend a month in the absence of your wife?"  
  
Two days later the three had set sail for the distant island of Maudire.  
  
"I can't believe we got this far," Elizabeth said now, coming up behind Will.  
  
He silently agreed. Jack's "able-bodied crew" had abandoned ship for this particular endeavor and so the fact that the three had made it was a blessing.  
  
But far more so was that Elizabeth had spent a month in such close contact with Jack and had not, as of yet, murdered him in his sleep.  
  
"Alright, mates," Jack called, "get ready. We're about to go ashore."  
  
***  
  
An eerie fog had settled and Elizabeth couldn't ignore the goose bumps racing down her arms. It was a little too much, she thought, like her time aboard the Black Pearle when it was under the command of Captain Barbossa.  
  
She nervous ran her fingers along the hilt of her sword, her wedding gift from Will.  
  
No one spoke as they stepped onto the sand, and there was no sound at all, save for Jack's enthusiastic humming of "A Pirate's Life For Me."   
  
She rather regretted ever teaching him that bloody song.   
  
The Turners followed Jack into a cave not far from the shoreline, and then promptly froze when they caught sight of the interior.  
  
"Well, this is VERY interesting," Jack murmured.  
  
The man had a knack for understatement.  
  
The walls, ceiling, were not made of stone of any kind, nor were they rough. With shaking fingers, Elizabeth reached up and touched it.  
  
"It's crystal," she gasped in wonder.  
  
"What did you think," Jack muttered, leading the way down a long passage. "That the gods would put their prized possession in a place less than suitable?"  
  
The Turners still gazing at the walls in wonder, they made their way. They knew better than to question Jack's turns, so instead they simply remained quiet, but Will swallowed a lump in his throat when Elizabeth tightened her grip on his hand.  
  
"I think we've found it," Jack said suddenly.  
  
It was hard to believe, at that moment, that they had begun their journey by entering a cave. The room was gold. Later in their lives, each would claim that it was impossible, what they saw, for how could any island remain unnoticed, untouched for so long if their walls were made of gold? But even then, as they stared at the room in unmasked wonder, a part of them in the back of their mind was tugging. A part of them knew exactly why that room had remained intact.  
  
It was the fear of the repercussions if they touched anything.  
  
"You know," Will said, "I don't think we should be here."  
  
"I'm in complete agreement," Elizabeth responded.  
  
Jack rolled his eyes. "What you think? That the gold is going to leap from the wall and attack you? I wouldn't be too worried if I were you. It doesn't seem to have a weapon."  
  
With that, he moved deeper into the room and caught sight of the most beautiful object he had ever seen.  
  
Golden, like the room, and encrusted with seductive jewels, was what could only be Pandora's Box.  
  
Just sitting in the center of the room.  
  
In less than a blink, Jack was standing in front of the chest, his eyes eagerly drinking it in. He paused when his eyes darted to an inscription in a language that he had never seen before, but before he could ponder it any longer, a very familiar, very FEMALE voice snapped, "Don't touch it, Jack. I haven't followed you for a month and a half only to have to run you through."  
  
With that, he felt the sharp tip of a sword press gently against his back. It wasn't bleeding yet, but it would if pressed much harder.  
  
He slowly moved away from the chest and turned to face Will and Elizabeth, knowing that the woman was standing behind him, her sword still drawn. Will held his own blade and Elizabeth had been, apparently, reaching for hers when it had, evidently, occurred to them that perhaps it wasn't a good idea to fight a woman with a hostage.  
  
Of course, THEY didn't know who the woman was.  
  
"Alexa," he exclaimed, feigning pleasure he didn't altogether feel. "I've been meaning to stop by your home for a visit on me travels. Been a bit busy you know-"  
  
"Quiet, Jack. I haven't the patience to listen to you go on for hours about how much you've missed me. It's been 15 years and I'm sure that you can remember just what happened the last time we saw each other, so don' t pretend you've spent all this time missing me."  
  
Will's eyes narrowed in frustration. "Dammit, Jack, is there any female within a 100 mile radius you haven't managed to infuriate?"  
  
"No," answered Alexa from her vantage point.  
  
If Jack didn't know better, he might have thought she was smiling.  
  
"But the past," she continued, "isn't the point. I didn't come so far just to kill the bastard, though don't think the thought didn't occur to me." She prodded him farther and he winced. "No, I'm here to keep you from making the grandest mistake of your entire existence. Captain Jack Sparrow, if you open that box, more than your life will be at stake."  
  
With that, she pushed him forward, away from her and her sword and he turned to face the woman.  
  
She hadn't changed much at all, he decided, examining her fair features. And 15 years was a long time. She was still only about 3 inches shorter than he, and still had the same furious green eyes and long red hair that kept her from blending in in a crowd.  
  
All things considered, she should have been a rather terrible pirate, yet somehow she had managed to turn out alright. Not fantastic. But alright.  
  
Sighing deeply, Jack gestured to Alexa with the grandiose attitude of someone presenting a queen. "Elizabeth and dear William, I would like to introduce to you the absolute apple of me eye-Alexa Sparrow. My wife." 


	2. The Mistake

Disclaimer: I still own nothing. Well, except for Alexa.   
  
A/N: trapt130: Thank ya for the kind review! I have read your story and reviewed, but in case you haven't seen it… Update it soon! It's very original. Kumiko *Kaylin* Eharu: Um… I THINK that was a compliment. I'll pretend it was, anyway. Ginny-Star, Thank you so much!  
  
A/N 2: I have BORROWED the idea of what is inside Pandora's Box from an episode of Hercules. Please don't hurt me or sue.  
  
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"Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough."  
  
~Janwillem Van De Wetering   
  
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There was a long silence.  
  
"You're married?"   
  
It was Elizabeth who had spoken, Elizabeth who was eyeing the woman with something akin to pity.   
  
Alexa laughed. "Hard to believe, is it? Jackie boy not exactly the run of the mill groom?"  
  
"Hardly."  
  
"If I may interrupt," Jack interjected, feeling that this conversation wasn't exactly boding well for him. "Alexa, you're a good pirate, but, really, there are three of us and one of you. As desolate in my absence as I've heard you've been, I doubt that your ability to determine odds has dwindled."  
  
Green eyes rested on brown as she returned, "Was that sarcasm I detected in your voice?"  
  
"Don't make me fight you."  
  
Jack's voice was hard and Will found himself looking up in surprise. Jack never spoke like that. He had always been easy going and, despite his piracy, kind. Smooth.  
  
But now Will wondered just how far he'd go to get his hands on that box.  
  
"Do you even know what's in it?" Alexa turned her gaze to Will, who, in turn, raised a questioning eyebrow at his friend.  
  
"We were assured that it was harmless," Elizabeth snapped, looking as if she rather regretted not murdering Jack when the opportunity had arisen.  
  
"By this character?" She sent her husband a glare Will was grateful not to be on the receiving end of.  
  
"He's never given us reason to doubt him before," Will defended. Jack smiled brightly.   
  
"You know the story, of course, of Pandora?" Alexa asked. She didn't wait for an answer, but continued, her voice echoing frustration. "Myth has always claimed that she shut the lid too late to keep anything inside, but that's not true." She paused, and it seemed to Will that her eyes glittered in the reflecting light. It was not altogether a pleasant feeling. "There was something inside, something she managed to keep from escaping. And I'll be damned if any of you're going let it free."  
  
Jack rolled his. "Darling if this is about the treasure…" He started forward, then promptly halted when the tip of her sword brushed his neck.   
  
"Don't come any closer."   
  
"What is it," Elizabeth snapped. "What is in that thing that you so obviously don't want out?"  
  
"Death," she answered flatly.   
  
"Do you think you could specify a bit?"  
  
"The 'gift' inside there is nothing more than a curse on mankind. A curse that takes away man's ability to heal himself."  
  
Jack glared. "I think *you've* been listening to too many stories, my lady."  
  
"And I think you have been *ignoring* too many. Honestly, Jack!" She threw up her arms in frustration, just narrowly missing cutting off her husband's chin. "How could you just put these people in danger?"  
  
"You're overreacting, love. We aren't in any danger."  
  
Continuing as though he hadn't spoken, Alexa turned to Will. "And you!"  
  
Will blinked and shared a look of uncertainty with Elizabeth. "Yes?"  
  
"I expect this kind of behavior from Jack. The man is nothing more than a walking nuisance to the rest of us." She stopped long enough to shoot him another icy frown. "But the son of Bootstrap Bill himself."  
  
"You knew my father as well?" Will asked.   
  
She smiled. "Lost many a hand of poker to that man, I don't mind telling ye." She sighed, then. "Why on earth did you get mixed in with… Him?!"  
  
"Listen, I don't know what he's done to you, but Jack-"  
  
What Jack was, Alexa didn't seem to care to discover. She threw back her head and laughed, startling all three. "Don't know what he did to me, eh? Care to tell them, Jack?"  
  
"You probably should," he answered, looking decidedly annoyed. "I'm sure you'll be able to stress your grief far better that I could imitate."  
  
Shooting him yet another glare, she pursed her lips. "Fine. Fifteen years ago, over in Tortuga, Jack and I met, and started spending a lot of time together. A courtship, in its own way. Well, everything went fine; we married in a small church, just us. Blessedly absent of family and the like. Anyway, that very evening, after our night of passion, while I slept, Jackie stole my ship. And then sank it a year later."  
  
Elizabeth's eyes widened in disbelief. "You married this woman to steal her *boat*?"  
  
"Ship," Jack amended quickly. "And it's not as though you've exactly been mourning since my departure."  
  
"YOU STOLE 'THE PROMISE!'"  
  
Alexa's shout rang through the room and made the rest jump.   
  
"The ship?" Will asked.  
  
"The ship," Jack responded.  
  
"The point, darling, is that you mustn't open that chest. Please, just leave it be."  
  
Jack stood, clearly attempting to avoid the woman's gaze. With a beaten sigh, he finally answered, "Alright, alright. If you'll just keep your dramatics under control, I promise, no pun intended, that I won't touch Pandora's Box."   
  
"Thank you," Alexa muttered, and for the first time, lowered her sword. "I've been worried sick, you know. Afraid I might not make it on time."  
  
"It's getting late. Maybe we should all rest here for the evening," Elizabeth suggested, though not entirely for the good of the others. She couldn't bare the idea of returning to a month of sea voyage with Jack already.  
  
Alexa nodded her agreement. "That's a good idea. If it's all the same to everyone else, I'm going to sleep elsewhere. There are rats in here."  
  
No one doubted even for an instant just who she was talking about.  
  
Seemingly simultaneously, the three sank to the floor.  
  
"Why don't we go sleep on the ship," Will suggested, feeling the ground with his hand. Gold may be nice to look at, he thought, but it wasn't exactly a pillow and blankets.  
  
Jack turned a questioning eyebrow on his friend. "You're welcome to do so, but as for me? I'll be sleeping right here. Where the view is so lovely."  
  
Elizabeth sighed, and laid down beside her husband. "Maybe we should stay here with him," she whispered to Will. "You know. Just in case he gets the crazy idea in his head to go against his word."  
  
Will, smothering a moan of irritation, dropped his head back onto his arm. "I suppose."  
  
And, in mere seconds, two of the three had fallen into a deep sleep.  
  
Jack lay silently for a full fifteen minutes before he cautiously sat up. "I promised I wouldn't touch the box," he muttered, rising to his feet, "and I won't. I'm just having a look."  
  
Moving across the room with more stealth than either Turner would have given him credit for, he approached the aforementioned box and stared. He couldn't imagine how much treasure such a chest might hold, but he was trying. Images of gold, of crowns, jewels danced in his mind. And all that kept him from having it in his hands was a rather flimsy promise he made under threat of death. Those sort of promises didn't really count anyway, did they?  
  
(Promises already being rather nebulous things to Jack, he decided that they probably didn't.)  
  
Careful not to wake his friends-Jack always prided himself on his selflessness- he prodded the chest with his sword. No black clouds of death came racing from its inners, nor did any member of the undead leap out at him. With a complacent grin, and quite disbelieving of his wife's warning, he placed both hands on the lid and lifted.  
  
A sharp, cold gust of wind swept across the room, and before Jack's very eyes, the gold walls darkened to black.   
  
"What have you done?"   
  
Alexa stood at the entrance to the room, regarding her husband with fear and disbelief.  
  
Her loud cry woke Will and Elizabeth. It took only moments for the pair to surmise the events, and when they had, they leapt to their feet. Jack returned their gazes of fury with a look of innocence.   
  
"What?"  
  
"Jack," Alexa yelled, "what have you DONE?"  
  
What Jack's reply might have been, there was no telling, for his eyes caught something that make his voice trail away.  
  
And following the look of surprise in his eyes, the other three saw exactly what had him so stupefied.  
  
Standing just behind the chest was a young girl, no older, probably, than 20. White pale cheeks gave the impression of a deep sadness. Long golden hair stretched down her back, and crystal blue eyes rested solely on Jack.   
  
"Do you realize what you've done?" A soft, musical voice met four pairs of ears.   
  
No one spoke.  
  
"You do." Her eyes darted to Alexa, who said nothing. She simply lowered her head, and sighed. The woman returned her gaze to Jack. "Your wife told you no lies earlier, Captain Sparrow. You have released a punishment of the gods."  
  
"Jack!" Will glared at his old friend in frustration.  
  
"How was I supposed to know," he returned.  
  
"She *warned* you," Elizabeth snapped.  
  
"You know what you must do, then." Again the beautiful woman glanced at Alexa for confirmation.  
  
"Yes, I do."   
  
The pair locked eyes. The remaining three glanced at each other questioningly.  
  
The woman nodded. "Good. Then I must go. It was my job to guard the box, and I have failed. I must go receive my punishment." With that, she was gone.  
  
Whirling around, Alexa shoved Jack against the wall. "What in the bloody hell is the matter with you? You said you wouldn't touch it, that you wouldn't go *near* it. Why on earth would you lie about that? What caused you to be so utterly insane? Greed?"  
  
"It's a rather nice box, don't you think?" He gave what he hoped was a charming smile.  
  
"It's not funny!" But realizing arguing with Jack was futile (rather, she supposed, like arguing with a wall-you knew he wasn't listening, and even if he was, there wasn't much he could do), she released him and stepped back.  
  
"Come on, then," she snapped, leading the way out of the room.  
  
"Ms. Sparrow-" Elizabeth began, but Alexa cut her off.  
  
"Don't call me that," she said, her voice strangled.   
  
Elizabeth tried again. "Captain Sparrow?"  
  
"Alexa. I have no desire to hear "Sparrow" used synonymous with me."  
  
Elizabeth understood. "Alexa, do you mind if I ask where we're going?"  
  
Alexa continued briskly down the path they were following, and didn't even glance over her shoulder as she returned the woman's question. "We're going to undo the damage my doting husband has done to the good world."  
  
Jack raised his eyebrows in surprise. "*We?*"  
  
"Yes. We. As in, you three and myself. As in, the four of us."  
  
"And I suppose you, of course, know how to go about doing this?"  
  
She stopped and turned, meeting Jack's eyes with her own. Then, to Will's shock, she gave a disarming grin that reminded him a little too much of his friend.   
  
"Of course I do. I'm Alexa Sparrow." 


End file.
